BEIJING, September 20. /TASS/. Tianzhou-3 cargo vehicle successfully docked with the main module of the Chinese space station, reported China Central Television on Monday.

"Tianzhou-3 cargo ship at 22:08 local time (17:08 Moscow time) successfully docked with the Tianhe base module of the Chinese space station," the TV channel reported.

The launch of Tianzhou-3 took place on Monday at 15:10 local time (10:10 Moscow time). The cargo ship delivered food, fuel, spacewalks and other materials to the station for the crew of the Shenzhou 13 manned spacecraft, which is scheduled to launch in October.

China launched the base module of the national space station into orbit in April. From June 17 to September 16, three cosmonauts from the Shenzhou-12 crew worked at the station. During this time, the taikonauts (the name adopted in China for the participants in space flights) made two spacewalks to install equipment.

In total, the installation of all station nodes will take about a year and will be completed in 2022. The program provides for seven more launches: the delivery into orbit of two more laboratory modules "Wentian" and "Mentian", two cargo ships and three manned expeditions with taikonauts. The total weight of the station will be over 90 tonnes. Three cosmonauts and up to six people will be able to work on it at the same time when changing the crew. The station will operate for about 10 years.

After the completion of the formation of the main elements of the station, an autonomous module "Xuntian" with an optical telescope will be launched into the same orbit. The diameter of its mirror will amount to 2 meters. The module will be equipped with its own engines: it is assumed that from time to time it will be docked to the station for repair, refueling and equipment maintenance.